


Every second counts

by lalejandra



Category: The OC (TV)
Genre: Best Friends, Gen, Transformative Works Welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-09-22
Updated: 2004-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 07:36:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16058528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalejandra/pseuds/lalejandra
Summary: Ryan has been home for eight hours, ten minutes, and 42 seconds. 43 seconds. 44 seconds.





	Every second counts

It's been 4:31 am for 42 seconds now. Seth's eyes are burning a little from staring at the face of his watch, or that's what he tells himself he's staring at because it has nothing to do with the patch of skin visible above Ryan's boxers.

Ryan has been home for eight hours, ten minutes, and 42 seconds. 43 seconds. 44 seconds.

He stretches again and his shirt rides up higher and Seth swallows hard. It's time to turn off the television. Nothing good is on anyway, and even if something good was on, Seth would still be paying attention to the dark hairs on Ryan's stomach and Ryan's hand scratching them, Ryan's fingernails torn and dirty.

It's 4:32 am. 3 seconds, 4 seconds, 5 seconds. Ryan's hand stops rubbing, falls back to his side. Seth's eyes flick up to Ryan's face; still sleeping.

Ryan has been sleeping for five hours, twenty-three minutes, 11 seconds. Seth isn't counting or anything. He's just been watching, watching Ryan's chest move up and down, watching his dirty fingernails, watching his face. He hasn't shaved in days and he has a beard growing, and it looks like it would be soft -- but Seth is _watching_ , not touching. And later he's going to be _talking_ , not touching, because Ryan has to know why Seth left, why Seth went to Tahiti and then Portland and then came home.

Seth came home because his mother called and was crying and said that Ryan was coming home and Seth had better be here when Ryan got back or she'd give Seth's room to Ryan.

The flight home was spent thinking about Ryan sleeping in Seth's bed.

Seth feels kind of guilty because sometimes Summer sneaks into these thoughts, but if Summer was the one who had called him at Luke's, Seth doesn't think he would have come home. When did life get so complicated? When Seth decided he was gay for Ryan the way that Wolverine was gay for Cyclops, that's when -- so life's been complicated for about four hundred-fifty six hours, give or take some minutes. Seth hadn't been near a clock in the middle of the ocean when he decided that he was gay for Ryan.

It's all Summer's fault anyway, because she could have noticed!

She could have noticed Seth was gay for Ryan the way that Seth is noticing that Ryan doesn't have any hair on his back. Ryan has been sleeping for five hours, twenty five minutes, 27 seconds; Seth has been watching him sleep for exactly that long. 28 seconds. 29.

Seth watched Theresa drop Ryan off, kiss him on the mouth, drive away. Ryan stood in the driveway for three minutes, staring at the door, and finally Seth couldn't take it anymore and ran out of the door -- but his father beat him to it, and caught Ryan up in one of those big dad-hugs that Seth got when his dad picked him up at the airport, and they stayed that way, and Ryan was even hugging him back.

And Seth's mom had put an arm around Seth's shoulders and leaned into him as they watched them hug -- and Ryan was _crying_ and saying something into Sandy's ear, and Seth is sure that one of the words he'd said had been "Dad" -- and Sandy cried too, and Kirsten cried, and everyone cried except Seth.

Seth was too busy staring at Ryan. Tan, dirty, bearded Ryan with muscles in his forearms and his jeans hanging off his ass and a duffle bag sitting in the driveway.

Seth is still staring at Ryan. Ryan spent a couple of minutes staring back at him. Two minutes. 56 seconds.

There's going to be yelling when Seth's parents finally get over having him and Ryan both home. There's going to be yelling when Summer realizes Seth is home. There's going to be a lot of yelling.

But for right now, Ryan's eyes are closed, so he can't see Seth staring at him, and he's wearing the boxers Seth gave him last year, the Wolverine ones, and there's a little bit of hair on his stomach, and none at all on his back.

It's been five am for 13 seconds now, and every second counts.

  



End file.
